


Stalling Tactics

by Elsajeni



Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, College, Durin Family, Family Feels, Gen, Thorin has empty nest problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-13
Updated: 2013-04-13
Packaged: 2017-12-08 08:33:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/759310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsajeni/pseuds/Elsajeni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Your winter coat!" Thorin declares, and lunges for the coat closet.</p>
<p>Kili's faster, though — he always has been quick, less sturdy and strong than his brother but more nimble, more graceful — and he slips around Thorin, stops him with a hand on each shoulder. "Uncle," he says, and there is a certain note of strained patience in his voice. "It is <em>August</em>. I do not <em>need</em> a winter coat. And when I do need it, I'll only be two hours' drive away, so I will come here and <em>get</em> it. Now for God's sake get in the car."</p>
<p>Thorin obeys, sullenly; Kili stares back at the house until it's out of sight, and then turns his attention to some obnoxious, noisy game on his phone, leaving Thorin to watch the road in silence and wrack his brain for some excuse to turn around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stalling Tactics

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt](http://hobbit-kink.livejournal.com/6263.html?thread=15487607#t15487607) on hobbit_kink:
>
>> I want a modern au where Thorin has been raising his nephews, and now they're college age or slightly older. I just want to focus on their relationship. Is Thorin having trouble with the idea of Fili and Kili going off to college? Fond memories they like to tease each other about? Is Thorin overprotective? Were Fili and Kili constantly getting in trouble at school? Are they lovable little shits to the uncle they love so much and everyone else is more than a little intimidated by?
> 
> Also they conveniently live in the U.S., because that's the only country whose finishing-high-school-going-to-college process and terminology I am familiar with. 

"You're forgetting your hair dryer." He's stalling, he _knows_ he's stalling, and he's not proud of it; this is the tenth thing he's thought of that Kili has 'forgotten,' all of them easily replaced in an instant and half of them not even Kili's in the first place. The hair dryer is a particularly egregious example — it was Thorin who chose the brand and model, Thorin who paid for it, and Thorin's bathroom cupboard it sits in, and the only time in recent memory that Kili's even _used_ it was the night of his senior prom. But he can't seem to stop himself, and already he finds himself scanning the room again, looking for something else to insist they pack, another few moments' delay.

"I'll buy a new one," Kili says, rolling his eyes. "Or my roommate will have one. Or I just won't use one, I practically never do anyway. Listen, if we don't leave _now_ , I'll be late checking in for orientation."

"Your winter coat!" Thorin declares, and lunges for the coat closet.

Kili's faster, though — he always has been quick, less sturdy and strong than his brother but more nimble, more graceful — and he slips around Thorin, stops him with a hand on each shoulder. "Uncle," he says, and there is a certain note of strained patience in his voice. "It is _August_. I do not _need_ a winter coat. And when I do need it, I'll only be two hours' drive away, so I will come here and _get_ it. Now for God's sake get in the car."

Thorin obeys, sullenly; Kili stares back at the house until it's out of sight, and then turns his attention to some obnoxious, noisy game on his phone, leaving Thorin to watch the road in silence and wrack his brain for some excuse to turn around.

They've been driving about forty minutes when Kili sighs, switches his phone off, and says, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Thorin says, and jabs at the stereo; unfortunately, it was Kili who drove the car last, so it comes on one of his stations, a blast of incoherent noise turned up too high, and Thorin grimaces and switches it back off.

"Convincing," Kili says, and even without looking at him Thorin knows he's rolling his eyes. "Have you ever thought about an acting career, Uncle? I think you have great potential."

Thorin ignores him, busies himself fiddling with the cruise control, and the car is silent for a few minutes more.

Then Kili sighs again, leaning back in his seat, and says, "I'm not a kid, you know. I'll be all right on my own. I know you don't think so, but I will."

"Of course you will," Thorin says, startled. "Kili, it's not — is that what you think? That I don't trust you to take care of yourself?"

"You weren't like this when Fili left." Kili folds his arms across his chest, turns his head to stare out the side window. "I don't mind. I mean, you're right — he's more responsible, he's been grown up since he was twelve—"

"He's had to be," Thorin says, and takes one hand off the wheel just for a moment, long enough to reach over and squeeze his nephew's shoulder. "Kili, it's true that you're not like your brother, but I'm _glad_ of that. I've always known you'd grow up just fine, when the time came that you needed to, and I'm glad that time didn't come so early for you as it did for him."

"Well, what is it, then?" Kili demands. "I'm going to the same school, the same distance away, I'm even living in the same _dorm_ as him, and you say you have the same confidence in me as in him. So why are you acting different?"

Thorin sighs, and for a moment toys with the idea of pulling over to finish this conversation — he'd rather have it anywhere _but_ in the car, anywhere that he could keep his eyes on Kili's face as they speak, or pull the boy close against his chest as he talks about letting him go. But of course, his own stalling has made that impossible, and he bites the bullet and says simply, "I don't want to lose you."

"And, what, you didn't mind losing Fili?" Kili sounds appalled.

"Don't be ridiculous," Thorin says, a little more sharply than he means to; then, softer, "That's just it, Kili — I hadn't lost him, not while I had you at home. You anchored him there. But with both of you gone, both of you going off into the world together — what's my house to you, then? What's still there, to bring you back to me?"

"Well, my winter coat, for one thing," Kili says, but there's warmth underneath the flippancy; he shifts in his seat, reaches across to lay a hand on Thorin's shoulder. "Uncle, you know us better than that. You know we'll come back."

"I do," Thorin nods, managing a half-smile. "Of course I do. But I also know it won't be the same, and... well. I just wasn't ready, I suppose."

"And all that nonsense about hair dryers and extra pillows and everything," Kili says, amusement in his voice, "that was you trying to buy enough time that you _would_ be ready?"

Thorin reddens, and admits, "Well, yes"; Kili tries and fails to stifle a laugh, and after a moment Thorin can't quite help a snort himself, and soon the car is full of Thorin's deep bark of a laugh and Kili's higher-pitched howling, the discomfort of their conversation nearly forgotten.

An hour later, they're standing in front of Kili's new room at last, all his things unloaded and half-unpacked and a cheerful upperclassman waiting at the end of the hall to whisk Kili off to new-student orientation. Thorin knows how this goes — he managed it with Fili, the quick hug goodbye and the graceful exit — and he's been mentally rehearsing for half the drive, but now, in the moment, he hesitates, brings one hand up to scratch at the back of his neck. "Well," he says awkwardly.

"Well," Kili echoes, and bites his lip. "I... I'll miss you, Uncle."

"I know you will," Thorin says, and then he does step forward, pulls Kili into a tight embrace. "And I'll miss you, too, very much."

"I'll study hard," Kili says into Thorin's shoulder, his voice a bit muffled. "And I'll look out for Fili, and make sure he does something _besides_ studying sometimes."

"That's my boy," Thorin says, and gives his nephew a last squeeze, then steps back, holds him by the shoulders at arm's length. "And you'll come back home, of course. Often."

"Of course I will," Kili says, and grins suddenly. "I have to. Why d'you think I 'forgot' all that stuff?"


End file.
